One of the reporter's points is that the candidate doesn't mention that he's running as a Republican. Hmmmph, nothing new about that! Washington State Republican candidates frequently don't mention their party......

With voters in a sour mood about politics, candidates across the country are trying to figure out how to convince their constituents that they aren't like most politicians.Ron Johnson, a Republican running for Senate in Wisconsin, seems to have cracked the code with an interesting and authentic ad that stands out from the cookie-cutter campaign ads flooding the television airwaves these days.

The beginning of the end for the Tea Party faux revolution occurred this Sunday on ABC’s This Week. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell effectively tipped his hand when asked whether the Tea Party will help or hurt Republicans. “One thing we know about everybody who’s been active in this movement, we know none of them are going to go out and vote Democrat,” he stated. McConnell confirms what polls show and many of us have long suspected: The Tea Party is the Grand Old Party with a caffeinated beverage. In early August on NBC’s Meet the Press, House Minority Leader John Boehner plugged the website “America Speaking Out” as part of the Rush Limbaugh maligned “GOP Listening Tour.” Visitors submitted ideas and then those ideas were voted up or down by others. With millions of votes and page views the site is a fascinating read. Strangely, the ideas voted highest are mostly centrist: abolishing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; divorcing from the Religious Right; not kowtowing to the NRA; and, denouncing Palin/Beck/Limbaugh. An idea voted “up” over one thousand times reads, “Can we make policy decisions that are based on sound science and that are data driven and quantifiable? Not politicized ones?” One responder put it best, “I don’t think this is a libtard. He actually has a decent point. People should make policy decisions based on common sense.” Some of the most selected ideas on the site included not outsourcing jobs overseas and cutting back expense allowances given to Members of Congress. What about party defining issues like abortion? The idea receiving the most votes said to make it “safe, legal and rare.” The “open mike” section contained almost unanimous calls to legalize weed. Keep in mind these are the new ideas Republicans asked for and were given by other self-identified Republicans. So what did the Republican Party do with this new information? They released their 21-page “Pledge to America” legislative agenda last week. In it they played right into the recent criticism from President Barack Obama that the GOP just wants to go back and do they same thing they were doing during the Bush Years. They’ve even used the phrase “back to 2008 levels.” Yes, relive the golden era of 2008 when the economy imploded and the Democrats won in a landslide. Great idea…for the Democrats. Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, cut clips from the 1994 “Contract with America” footage and aired it alongside the current video - some talking points are verbatim. Congressman Boehner is on videotape twice, first 12 years ago and then again most recently at the unveiling of the Pledge at a hardware store, stating, “A smaller, less costly and more accountable government in our nation’s capital.” “Your fresh new ideas sound slightly – did I say ‘slightly’ – exactly like your old ideas,” Stewart quipped. Reading the “Speaking Out” site, it’s clear there is more common ground than partisanship would have us believe. Many originally Republican ideas, like mandating all Americans purchase health insurance as a way to ensure coverage and contain costs (introduced as an alternative to “HillaryCare”), the GOP now vehemently oppose. Cap and Trade is a free market idea. It came out of conservative ideology, but now somehow it’s a cattle prod to electrify the base against “job-killing environmentalists.” The bailout is despised by Republicans and blamed on Obama – but it was signed by Bush. The soaring deficit? Republicans were for it before they were against it. The current Republican Party is counting on the Tea Party’s morphing into the attack wing of the GOP - isolating moderates and anyone with genuine new ideas. And that means there will be Representatives who are not actually representative. In a two-party system, if one party is broken – then the entire system is broken. So where do the reasonable Republicans go who were not listened to? The extremists have had their two years of attention screaming in front of television cameras. Is it time for the conversationalists yet? Is the center due for a comeback? Already springing up are non-profit groups like No Labels, who will officially launch later this year, seeking to promote centrist candidates and to bring Democrats and Republicans together. Hm. The moderates? That seems like…a pretty new – if not novel idea.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A newly-discovered blog I think you'll appreciate as I do:Did You Check First?A place where opinions and discussions on topics like religion, politics, society, and the environment are welcome. The question - Did you check first? - is simply intended to encourage the inclusion of reference sources in your posts. All that is asked is that everyone be respectful of everyone else. The golden rule applies - don't post something about someone if you wouldn't want to see it about yourself. In other words, address the issue and not the individual.

What the hell did you do? You whine and snivel because you don't like somebody else's moronic comment? You can't really believe that the idiotic crap that you spew day after day, thread after thread has any more validity to it then the other posters.
Larry, get your head out of your ass. You are the kind of twit that brings out the worst in anybody.
If you would stay off LTE for a month or two, civility would certainly return naturally.
Chuck from Tacoma

Now, everyone needs to remember that, a couple of months before that, I was going to Tacoma and invited Chuck to meet me for coffee. SondraK jumped in a warned Chuck that I wasn't safe (LMAO). Chuck from Tacoma disappeared with Sondra Kovacio and a host of others.

Chuck - if you were really out there, I have a question. Why would it take a "month or two" for civility to "return" if I were to not post? If I was the problem, one day should do the trick.

Sorry to task you with tough questions. Shine those white bucks, unbutton the top two buttons to show off the gold chain and sell a motorhome or two.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

One more distortion/half truth from the income tax supporters. As other readers have pointed out, after two years the legislature can change any initiative. As we've seen in recent years, if the liberals have the votes, they won't hesitate to change initiatives even when it is clearly against the desires of the electorate.

1098 is a shameful example of partisan efforts to divide the state along economic lines. "Don't worry, we'll raise taxes on everyone else, but not you. You can trust us!"

My 1989 pickup that I use four times a year for runs to the dump costs $86 to license. So much for the $30 license tab initiative!

The $30 tabs didn't take into account local taxes and tonage. If that $86 is breaking you, sell the damned pickup and use the garbage service. If you have to run to the dumb 4 times a year, I wouldn't want to live next door to you.

Tim Eyman saw you coming and paid himself well, despite not considering all the factors of licensing, but remember, Timmy's money comes from the fight, not the outcome.

According to LocalPuke.com, Grayson falsely called his opponent a "draft dodger" (LocalPuke.com linked itself as the source). Let's take a look and see:

Webster was born in Charleston, West Virginia on April 27, 1949. His family moved to Orlando, Florida when he was seven, after a doctor recommended a change of climate as a cure for Webster's sinus problems.[2] He attended Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was student government chaplain from 1970 to 1971 and was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.[2][3] He graduated in 1971 with a degree in engineering.[1] During his time at Georgia Tech, Webster received an educational draft deferment; following graduation, he was told to report to the United States military on June 1971. The next month, while attempting to complete his enlistment, he was given a 1-Y classification and turned away from service after lifelong foot problems caused him to fail his physical exam.[4]After college, Webster returned to Florida, where he helped his father run the family business: Webster Air Conditioning and Heating, Inc., an air conditioning and heating company he continues to own and operate.

Now note that the doctor's that said the family must move from West Virginia to Florida, cited a sinus problem, not a foot problem. I guess Georgia was close enough to Florida for that sinus problem during college. Obviously his "life long foot problem" didn't stand in his way of working for the family business.

The humor in this is that I've been called a draft dodger for sitting one year of 1-A eligibility and not being drafted due to a high lottery number.

It's amazing how these patriots with foot and ass problems (Rush Limbaugh) are patriots, but people like me that sat and waited for the draft, and were not drafted....well we're draft dodgers.

A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.

[snip]

The study also found that many Americans don't understand constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.
"Many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are," Pew researchers wrote.

Monday, September 27, 2010

With Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee all making moves indicating they may run for president, their common employer is facing a question that hasn’t been asked before: How does a news organization cover White House hopefuls when so many are on the payroll?

The answer is a complicated one for Fox News.

As Fox’s popularity grows among conservatives, the presence of four potentially serious Republican candidates as paid contributors is beginning to frustrate competitors of the network, figures within its own news division and rivals of what some GOP insiders have begun calling “the Fox candidates.”

With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office.

The matter is of no small consequence, since it’s uncertain how other news organizations can cover the early stages of the presidential race when some of the main GOP contenders are contractually forbidden to appear on any TV network besides Fox.

C-SPAN Political Editor Steve Scully said that when C-SPAN tried to have Palin on for an interview, he was told he had to first get Fox’s permission — which the network, citing her contract, ultimately denied. Producers at NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC all report similar experiences.

At issue are basic matters of political and journalistic fairness and propriety. With Fox effectively becoming the flagship network of the right and, more specifically, the tea party movement, the four Republicans it employs enjoy an unparalleled platform from which to speak directly to primary voters who will determine the party’s next nominee.

Their Fox jobs allow these politicians an opportunity to send conservative activists a mostly unfiltered message in what is almost always a friendly environment. Fox opinion hosts typically invite the Republicans simply to offer their views on issues of the day, rather than press them to defend their rhetoric or records as leaders of the party.

Fox, in an e-mail to POLITICO, indicated that once any of the candidates declares for the presidency he or she will have to sever the deal with the network.

But it’s such a lucrative and powerful pulpit that Palin, Gingrich, Santorum and Huckabee have every reason to delay formal announcements and stay on contract for as long as they can.

That fact alone has sparked buzz in political and media circles, particularly as it applies to Palin, a major ratings draw. Can she remain on Fox’s payroll if, while not formally a declared candidate, she’s visiting early primary states and assembling a presidential campaign in 2011? Or will Fox at least relax its exclusivity provision to let the candidate appear on other cable or broadcast networks?

Fox said it doesn’t relax exclusivity provisions.

[snip: Please be sure to read the rest of this article (click on the title). I tried to excerpt parts but found it hard to do so and still make the full sense and importance available.]

The Democratic party controlled congress is poised to enact the largest tax increase in history by refusing to extend the Bush tax cuts. The Republicans cut taxes and ended the 2001 recession; the Democrats will reimpose income taxes and deepen the Obama/Murray recession.

Now, as has been all over the media and everyone that wants to know - does.....

The Democrats were proposing that only those earning over $250,000 a year lose the tax cuts installed in 2001. They would see a 3% increase, which means they will have enjoyed an additional $75,000 minimum during the past 10 years.

Oh, I forgot. They used that money for the new jobs they created that no one has.

Dino Rossi is a Republican candidate in the primary for the U.S. Senate in Washington. He is real estate investor who previously served as a state senator and twice ran for governor of Washington.

In the 1990s, Sen. Rossi developed a relationship with one of Seattle’s biggest real estate developers, Michael Mastro. In 1997, when Sen. Rossi was serving in the state Senate, he purchased a building from Mr. Mastro. Two of Sen. Rossi’s fellow investors were Washington state lobbyists, David Ducharme and his father, Richard Ducharme. Mr. Mastro loaned the threesome $2 million to purchase the $2.5 million property. Separately, Sen. Rossi borrowed $50,000 from Mr. Mastro for the purchase, which he did not report as required on his financial disclosure forms. Mr. Mastro was also a donor to both of Sen. Rossi’s campaigns for governor. In 2008, Mr. Mastro’s multimillion dollar empire crumbled after it became apparent he had been promising untenable returns to investors.

Sen. Rossi’s relationship with the Ducharmes continued long after they sold the building they had purchased from Mr. Mastro. While still a state senator, Sen. Rossi turned to the pair once again and convinced them to invest in a bank that he had started. Sen. Rossi invested at least $75,000 of his own money in the bank and made David Ducharme CEO. In 2009, the bank came under investigation for “engage[ing] in unsafe and unsound banking practices relating to its strategic and capital planning, credit underwriting, credit administration, concentration risk management, and liquidity management.” David Ducharme is currently working to secure enough capital to appease federal regulators.Following his defeat in the 2004 gubernatorial race, Sen. Rossi started the Forward Washington Foundation. Sen. Rossi used the foundation to pay himself $75,000 a year while traveling the state giving speeches but little else. Sen. Rossi treated the foundation much like his own campaign committee, but he didn’t have to abide by campaign contribution limits or disclosure laws. The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) opened an investigation into the foundation but Sen. Rossi stepped down as president before the investigation was complete and declared his candidacy for governor. The Commission later ended its investigation because of insufficient evidence.

In his run for governor in 2008, Sen. Rossi was supported by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW). The BIAW spent $6.9 million largely to promote Sen. Rossi and criticize his opponent throughout the race. A complaint filed with PDC alleged that Sen. Rossi violated state law by coordinating fundraising with the BIAW, failing to register as a candidate in a timely manner, exceeding contribution limits and failing to disclose contributions. After an investigation, the PDC eventually cleared Sen. Rossi of any wrongdoing, but its final report revealed how closely the BIAW skirted the law in promoting his candidacy. Sen. Rossi’s close relationship to the BIAW shouldn’t have come as any surprise, though; Richard Ducharme is a former lobbyist for the BIAW.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

While we support Hunt’s re-election, there is no question that he’s been part of the good ol’ boy Democratic network that — with help of a national recession — has thrust this state into financial chaos.He concedes that Democrats may not have spent as much if they knew the economy was going to go into the toilet. Really? Isn’t that what advance planning and fiscal restraint are all about? And asked about the Legislature’s unwillingness to substantially reform state government — even in this time of economic crisis — Hunt concedes “we were very lax in that department.” Hunt, as chairman of the House State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee, was in a pivotal position to shrink and reshape state government. He blew that opportunity in favor of amounts to the status quo.Hunt, 67, a retired public servant, seems unrepentant for Democrats’ overspending. He’s part of the Democrats’ leadership team in the House, yet takes no responsibility for voter anger, saying the state is the victim of the national recession.Hunt benefits from a weak opponent and his strong ties to the Democratic establishment in a strongly Democratic district. His politics match his constituents, but voters must ask themselves how much longer they want more of the same. Hunt can distinguish himself in a seventh term if he becomes a catalyst for change. Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/09/26/1382111/reykdal-is-a-good-fit-and-hunt.html#ixzz10gUhRqFN

So says the newspaper management that is watching its own product fiscally tank.

The nice thing about Hunt is that he is honest, regardless of what you want to hear. Sam has no reason for "repenting". He had no control over a national recession and if the Dems would have created a 'slush fund for rainy days" you would have heard the GOPers wanting "tax rebates" (they've asked before).

It's certainly humorous to see The Olympian fail in so many ways in terms of marketing their product and yet, they claim the ability to critique others.

IDIOT SIGHTINGS
************************I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here!' I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'
************************I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'
************************The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?!'
She was a probation officer.
************************At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker. She was leaving the company due to 'downsizing.' Our manager commented cheerfully, 'This is fun. We should do this more often.' Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare.
************************I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the sake of her life, couldn't understand why her system would not turn on.
************************

Christine O'Donnell take note. Those who "dabble" in witchcraft don't build Satanic altars and there's no blood or "stuff like that."

The fiesty Delaware Senate candidate and Sarah Palin-protege, who suffered another bout of media scrunity after a 1999 video surfaced of her telling comedian Bill Maher that she "dabbled in witchcraft," was seriously confused about what she saw, according to a longtime witch and national Wiccan leader.

"It leads me to believe she's making it up completely out of whole cloth with poor information," said Sylvia T. Webb, the first officer of the Covenant of the Goddess, a national non-profit organization.
Comments like O'Donnell's, she said, are "bizarre" and contribute to misinformation about the religion.

We'll look forward to some great stuff from him. He brings a wealth of business knowledge and is a former media pro, so we'll have another source to carve up the local rag and stupidity from media sources far and wide.

O’DONNELL: They are — they are doing that here in the United States. American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains. So they’re already into this experiment.

Well, WOW! There is the meat and potatoes of this race! Corinne Tobeck, formerly employed by Lewis County, was laid off during the budget cutbacks, but as can be expected by low grade journalists, they don't tell the whole story. The good part is that the readers ripped them a new ass.

Why not mention THIS about DeBolt?

From the Seattle PI, circa 2004:

"Legislators often say that what's best for their bosses is best for their districts. Consider Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis. The House Republican leader also serves as "external relations" officer for the TransAlta energy company. Last year, DeBolt co-sponsored a bill that made small changes to an assortment of tax breaks, aiming to clarify previous legislation. The broadly supported package included a tax break for the Centralia Steam Plant, owned by TransAlta."It was more technical corrections," to avoid violating interstate commerce laws than it was a new tax exemption, said DeBolt, who said he had helped push through the original tax break. TransAlta employs 835 in his district, DeBolt said, and the bill "ties (TransAlta) down" to buying coal from the local mine."

By the way. TransAlta let over 600 workers go. In the mine.

Get the picture Zero?

Someone write those buttwipes a letter about their lack or journalistic ability. I can't publish for another 28 days.

"America is more than a country," begins the GOP's 'Pledge to America.' America, it turns out, is an "idea," an "inspiration," and a "belief." And the GOP wants to govern it.

Their policy agenda is detailed and specific -- a decision they will almost certainly come to regret. Because when you get past the adjectives and soaring language, the talk of inalienable rights and constitutional guarantees, you're left with a set of hard promises that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars, take health-care insurance away from tens of millions of people, create a level of policy uncertainty businesses have never previously known, and suck demand out of an economy that's already got too little of it.

You're also left with a difficult question: What, exactly, does the Republican Party believe? The document speaks constantly and eloquently of the dangers of debt -- but offers a raft of proposals that would sharply increase it. It says, in one paragraph, that the Republican Party will commit itself to "greater liberty" and then, in the next, that it will protect "traditional marriage." It says that "small business must have certainty that the rules won't change every few months" and then promises to change all the rules that the Obama administration has passed in recent months. It is a document with a clear theory of what has gone wrong -- debt, policy uncertainty, and too much government -- and a solid promise to make most of it worse.

Take the deficit. Perhaps the two most consequential policies in the proposal are the full extension of the Bush tax cuts and the full repeal of the health-care law. The first would increase the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next 10 years, and many trillions of dollars more after that. The second would increase the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years, and many trillions of dollars more after that. Nothing in the document comes close to paying for these two proposals, and the authors know it: The document never says that the policy proposals it offers will ultimately reduces the deficit.

Then there's the question of policy uncertainty. The health-care law, which is now in the early stages of implementation, would be repealed. In its place, Republicans would write a new health-care bill. They offer some guidance as to what it would look like, but as every business knows, the congressional and regulatory processes are both long and uncertain. That's joined by three sentences on shrinking and reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the policy's anticipated effects on the housing market, where the two mortgage giants are backing nine out of every 10 new loans, are not mentioned -- and a promise to force a separate congressional vote on every regulation with more than $100 million in economic impact, which would force businesses to figure out a new, dual-track regulatory process.

The agenda is least confused on the subject of reducing government. Though it says little about specific cuts it would make, the pledge includes a cap on non-security discretionary funding, the aforementioned congressional review process for big-ticket regulations, a hiring freeze on federal employees, and weekly votes on spending cuts. None of these policies is spelled out in any detail, but nor are they contradicted by other elements of the plan. If you believe, as the Republicans say they do, in the benefits of reducing the number of public jobs and the amount of public spending in an economy that has too few jobs and too little spending, then this makes some sense. Otherwise, it doesn't. And as Republicans have been hammering Democrats over recent jobs reports where public payrolls fall and private payrolls rise, it's not even clear that they believe this.

Of course, you could say that about most of the plan. It is hard to believe in both deficit reduction and policies that would add trillions to the deficit. It's also hard to warn of the dangers posed by regulatory uncertainty and then propose changing all the rules.

At the end of the day, America may be an idea -- but it is also a country. And it needs to be governed. This proposal avoids the hard choices of governance. It says what it thinks will be popular and then proposes what it thinks will be popular -- even when the two conflict. That, I fear, is a bad idea.

"The "Pledge to America," a cheap imitation of its 1994 forerunner, is fiscally irresponsible and out of touch with what America needs and wants. It's a pledge to reclaim something, all right. It wants to reclaim the failed policies that energized the electorate to replace the thinking of those who made this "pledge." More progressive Americans have been taking America in a new, better direction, in spite of them."

"It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy, It's not the policy......

Boy, one thing I really hate is when American judges try to impose harsh Islamic sharia law. You know, with all those grisly lashings, stonings and beheadings.

What’s that? No such thing is happening, and where did I get such a crazy idea? Why, Newt Gingrich told me.

[snip]
... Newt says we have to halt the insidious encroachment of sharia law, and we have to halt it here and now. In July, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, he went on at great length about the supposed sharia menace, which he sees as part of a “stealth” campaign to impose Islam on all of us.
[snip]The “stealth jihadis,” I suppose, must be like the “known communists” on the list in Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s hand.

In the July speech, Gingrich painted liberals as a bunch of fellow travelers: “How we don’t have some kind of movement in this country on the left that understands that sharia is a direct mortal threat to virtually every value that the left has is really one of the most interesting historical questions,” he said.

Where to begin? First, I guess, by stating the obvious: There is no left-of-center movement dedicated to fighting the steady, stealthy insinuation of sharia into America’s legal system because no such thing is happening.

[snip]If Newt were aware of this, would he blow a gasket? I doubt it. His objection seems to be faith-specific. And his purpose seems to be political. If Muslim-bashing draws a rise – and apparently it does – then he’s not going to be outdone. Watch out, Judge Judy. He may be coming for you next.

After being ripped to shreds by Democrats for his answers on the Boeing tanker issue, Dino Rossi has changed his position, aligning with Senator Patty Murray, but throwing a little red meat to the TEAPublicans:

Whatever one thinks of his politics, Newt Gingrich has demonstrated a wide-ranging intelligence over the years. But there's nothing intelligent about his recent endorsement of the theory that President Obama's political philosophy is rooted in a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. Bizarre is more like it.

National Review Online reports that the former speaker of the House praised conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza for a "stunning insight" into the president's behavior. That "insight," the subject of an article in Forbesmagazine, is that to understand Obama's views, one must scrutinize the opinions of his Kenyan father, who left Obama when he was 2 years old.

D'Souza writes: "From a very young age and through his formative years, Obama learned to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder."

Never mind that none of these sentiments comes from the mouth of the president. D'Souza attributes them to him because in a memoir, Obama wrote: "It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself." Thus is a deeply personal search for a father-son connection transformed into an embrace of the father's political views as articulated in a 1965 academic article.

D'Souza is reliably ridiculous and consistently wrong, so it's no surprise that he connects Obama's supposed hand-me-down worldview to everything from his push for a stimulus plan to his support of the right of Muslims to build a community center near ground zero to his reference, in a speech about the gulf oil spill, to "America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels." Yet this daffy deconstruction, according to Gingrich, is the "most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama."

Gingrich used to be a serious figure. He is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. But he has earned the description he applied to Obama: "If you look at [his] continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane."

It is not the business of anyone here to whom Eric is attracted to unless I missed it somewhere that Eric chose to disclose "his" bisexuality. If "he" hasn't, your inferring so has no place on this forum as well and is wrong my multiple standards.

What on earth is "untoward" about ackowledging your own admission that the gender with whom you have sex is a choice? That was your statement, not mine. I can't speak for everyone, but I certainly have no more choice about which gender attracts me than I do about my own race.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Republicans' top political strategist in the Senate, said Murkowski should lose her position atop the Energy Committee because she is challenging Joe Miller, the Republican nominee in Alaska who beat Murkowski in the GOP primary."I think it's the appropriate thing to do," Cornyn said. "When you choose not to accept the judgment of the primary voters and run as a write-in and not be the Republican nominee, it has consequences."Remember when the TEAPublicans were so sympathetic for Joe Lieberman?

Whatever happened to the concept of "let the people decide"? If Murkowski can't win, then the people have spoken.

Sonic Today 07:55 PMWhy is Lady Gaga all over the pictures for this story? Who cares what she thinks. One of my pet peeves in life is celebrities trumping for a cause as if they somehow know more than everyone else. In most cases they are much less informed than the average joe out there. Go sing and do whatever else you do, I don't care about your photo ops and your "causes".

Go stuff some shotgun shells, drink a beer and watch NASCAR, Sonic. You'll find the people you want to hear from.

If you heard what Lady said, you'd realized she was quite well versed on the subject. Far better than "Joe the Famous Plumber" who was toted around on John McCain's campaign as their resident political and budget expert.

Herrera, the top Republican to emerge from the Aug. 17 primary, is hoping to defeat Democrat Denny Heck in November and put the state’s 3rd Congressional District back in Republican hands for the first time since the mid-1990s, when anti-tax crusader Linda Smith won it.In a 15-minute breakfast speech to supporters, Herrera said the public is rightfully angry at federal spending and fearful about the economy.She said the free market must be allowed to self-correct without new rules or requirements that add costs for businesses, and she criticized spending both by Democrats controlling Congress and their Republican predecessors.On health care, Herrera said she favors market solutions such as letting small-business associations buy insurance across state lines and limits on medical malpractice claims, which some national Republicans backed but did not pass when they last controlled Congress.

Well, gosh Jaime, we're sure glad you're not pushing the old TEApublican Party line. The "free market" is working so well that our insurance costs are damned near to the moon, not to mention $500 charges to insurance companies for 10 minutes with a doctor and one cortizone injection.